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Pomona: Ron Capps preview

Buoyed By Strong Numbers In Testing, Capps Goes For No. 1 Season Opener POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 5, 2007) - Ron Capps, driving a new Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, topped the charts during preseason testing at the National Time Trials at ...

Published: Feb 6, 2007, 9:22 PM

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Buoyed By Strong Numbers In Testing, Capps Goes For No. 1 Season Opener

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 5, 2007) - Ron Capps, driving a new Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, topped the charts during preseason testing at the National Time Trials at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Ariz., Jan. 26-28, posting an elapsed time quicker than his "official" career-best of 4.694 seconds. While scorching the quarter-mile with an event-quick 4.678-second ET, Capps was impressed with how his team, led by crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch, has stepped up to include speed and quickness to its already consistent race-proven package.

A three-time runner-up in the Funny Car championship chase, and a warrior in excruciatingly close battles for the title the last two seasons, Capps is ready to mix it up even more in the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, as the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals opens a new season this weekend at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

"We're just trying to add to what we already had," said Capps, of Carlsbad, Calif., five-time winner in 2006, the most wins of any driver in the Funny Car class. "And what we had last year was arguably one of the most consistent cars when you look at the whole year. We've never really been a car that tried to run for the pole in cooler conditions, usually during Friday-night qualifying. Ace has always been the guy who just wanted to make sure we got down the track and didn't beat ourselves. The one thing he hates is hurting parts or beating ourselves, whether it's smoking the tires or whatever. And we've talked in the off season as a team, that when you look back, it's a pretty good season when you only find a couple of things that we did wrong that we could work on. We just need to run better and improve our qualifying positions.

"And, that's what we concentrated on in testing. We still have our tune-up for the warm weather, but that's all we worked on in Phoenix. And, sure enough, our first check-out run was probably the quickest run of the weekend, but it was a brand-new car so I had to shut it off. We came back and ran a .67 where I shut off at a little over 1200 feet (quarter-mile is 1320 ft.). And we ran a .71 on Monday shutting it off at 1220 feet. So, we're very, very happy with the results.

"I have talked pretty adamantly about how I feel on Sunday mornings racing with Ed McCulloch. He's a true professional racer. There's nobody I'd rather go to the starting line with on a Sunday morning. But, that being said, now I'm excited about running in the cool conditions, especially Friday night, because now I feel like we have a car that will go for the pole every time. And those extra points could become critical this year with the new Countdown to the Championship.

"I like starting (the season) in Pomona, because I live close to here. It's the heart of drag racing, which began out here in Southern California. I believe that Pomona definitely deserves to have the first and last race of the year."

-credit: dsr

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